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By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
INDIANAPOLIS - As they headed to the locker room at halftime Saturday with the score tied, 35-35, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats felt as if they had successfully withstood Butler's best shot and were looking forward to starting the second half with a clean slate.
The Bulldogs shot lights out in the first half, making 13 of 26 from the field and seven of 12 from 3-point range, but UC scored the last five points of the half, finishing it off with Troy Caupain's 3-pointer just before time expired.
"That was one of their toughest punches that they threw," Caupain said. "They came out swinging, but we matched it going into halftime tied even though it wasn't our best first half."
UC coach Mick Cronin felt good about that, too, but he didn't like the way the game was being called by the officials because he knew that such a physical game was not good for junior forward Kyle Washington.
As it turned out, Cronin's worst fears came true in the second half when the 16th-ranked Bulldogs outscored the 22nd-ranked Bearcats, 40-30, to earn a 75-65 victory before 9,176 fans at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
"I thought the game was extremely physical and that's not Kyle Washington's style of play," Cronin said. "I was extremely concerned with the way the game was being played. I knew the shooting wasn't gonna continue like that.
"I used to coach in the (BIG EAST) so I know that league ignores every NCAA directive and how everybody else plays their games. I tried to prepare our guys for it all week. In the second half, their physicality just took us completely out of our offense. We let it happen and it wasn't until we were down 10 that we started playing through contact on the offensive end and actually scoring some points."
There were bright spots for UC (7-2). Caupain had a breakout game with a season-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting; junior forward Gary Clark recorded his second double-double of the season and 13th of his career with 14 points and 12 rebounds; and sophomore swingman Jacob Evans scored 14 points with five rebounds.
But those performances weren't enough to overcome a difficult game for Washington, who scored a season-low seven points, 10 below his average, and failed to corral a single rebound in 19 minutes before he fouled out with 3:02 to play. It was the first time this season that he failed to reach double figures in scoring.
Butler (9-1) was led by Kelan Martin, who scored 20 points. The Bulldogs, who have won 34 straight home games against non-league opponents, made 21 of 26 free throws to just seven of 13 for UC. The Bearcats were six of 26 from long range, while Butler was eight-for-20.
Both of Washington's field goals were 3-pointers in the first half. He made only two of eight field goal attempts overall.
"Kyle can't play in a game like that," Cronin said. "He's a great player for us, but their physicality got in his head and he was not himself. He struggled to deal with it. He got dumb fouls. He made bad decisions. He struggles when people are physical with him and I've told him that, that people are gonna do that to him, they're gonna bait him, they're gonna body him, they're gonna be physical with him, and that's exactly what happened today."
UC took a 38-37 lead early in the second half on a 3-point play by Caupain. It was the Bearcats' first lead since the 13:18 mark of the first half but it lasted all of 16 seconds before Tyler Wideman's layup put the Bulldogs back on top. They never trailed again.
With Butler leading, 51-43, Washington was called for his fourth foul and left the game with 11:10 remaining. The Bearcats scored four straight points to close the Bulldogs' lead to four with 9:43 remaining.
Butler then took control, outscoring UC, 16-9, to take a 67-56 lead with 3:02 left. Cronin was slapped with a technical foul with 5:01 remaining for protesting after Evans was called for traveling when Cronin apparently thought he had been fouled. Martin made both free throws to spread the Bulldogs' lead to 12. UC never got closer than seven points after that.
The Bulldogs shot only 35.7 percent in the second half and made only one 3-point shot in eight attempts, but they went to the line 24 times and made 19 while UC attempted only 13 foul shots the entire game.
"You've got no chance when that happens," Cronin said. "No chance. We don't play defense like that because when we do it, it's a foul every time. You're not supposed to be able to just body block people, but if that's the way the game is gonna be played that's just how it is."
The Bearcats were unable to force the sure-handed Bulldogs into enough turnovers to trigger their transition game, with Butler committing only six. That forced UC into playing half-court offense, which is where the Bulldogs' edge in physicality reaped the most benefits.
"We didn't get any stops," Clark said. "We got maybe one the first half and in the second half we didn't get many stops either. We didn't get 40 deflections. Forty is a W."
Caupain's offensive outburst had been a long time coming. The American Athletic Conference pre-season Player of the Year had had a hard time finding his shooting range this season, but he showed signs of coming out of his slump when he scored 12 points Sunday in UC's win over Bowling Green. Against Butler, he looked like the player he's expected to be this season.
"It's all about confidence," Caupain said. "I knew they were gonna fall. It's just about when I was gonna decide that it was time to do it. Yesterday started it (in practice). I hope it keeps going."
"Troy handled the physicality well and Gary handled it well," Cronin said. "They handled the body bumping, the body blocking, playing through the contact, the best of all the guys on our team."
Washington, on the other hand, can expect to see more of those tactics as the season progresses if the games are called the way this one was.
"The way the rest of the country officiates the game you're not allowed to touch the guy with the ball," Cronin said. "He's a skill guy. He's got to control his emotions."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.